


my heart has been my teacher (and i've learned quite a lot)

by shorttfuse



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Asexual Character, F/M, Other, Unconventional Relationship, pure fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-04
Updated: 2013-08-04
Packaged: 2017-12-22 09:49:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/911802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shorttfuse/pseuds/shorttfuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Gottlieb's are having a baby, and Newt is happy for them. Really, he is! He's just going to miss them, is all. He's gotten used to...whatever this is.</p><p>Or: Newton is asexual, but he finds himself a family, anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	my heart has been my teacher (and i've learned quite a lot)

**Author's Note:**

> Here's a silly little thing I wrote at 4 in the morning and woke up to find sitting on my computer.
> 
> You could call Newt's relationship with the Gottlieb's a lot of different things. Newt mostly just calls it neat. If you have any questions or concerns about it or the way I portrayed it, please let me know!
> 
> Title comes from Jukebox the Ghost's lovely song "Summer Sun"

Four years after Newt sets up camp with the Gottliebs, six months after Newt saves the world (and it was totally Newt, okay, and maybe a little bit of Hermann, but Newt's the one who drifted with the alien, he's the one who figured it all out) Newt pushes open the door, arms full of take out, already talking a mile a minute. He freezes, though, when he sees Hermann with one hand on the wall and the other cupping Vanessa's cheek, Vanessa with both arms on Hermann's waist, kissing like they mean it.

"Right, well, uh, I'll just...put this on the counter and turn on the T.V., then, shall I? Really loudly. In my room. With the door shut. And you two can just let me know when it's safe to come out, yeah? Great, thanks, I appreciate it, have fun, be safe, etc. etc..."

Vanessa's laugh bubbles out of her, half into Hermann's mouth before she pushes at his chest until he backs up. Hermann's eyes don't stray from Vanessa's for a second, though he looks a little annoyed at being interrupted.

"I'm pregnant," Vanessa says, grinning, no preamble, and she tears her eyes away from Hermann's to grip Newt's free hand tightly in her own. "We're going to have a baby."

Newt's jaw totally drops, he doesn't even try to deny it.

"Oh," he says. "Oh. Oh my god! Congratulations! You should have...you could have warned me or something, and I would have shown up like three hours later to give you guys some time, or, you know, and I would have brought something better than horrible chinese food to celebrate! Oh my god! A kid! A little baby Gottlieb!" He drops the take out bag on the little table by the door and rushes over to ruffle Hermann's hair and pull Vanessa into a hug. 

"You," he says seriously, pointing straight at Hermann, Vanessa tucked possessively at Newt's side, "are going to be a horrible parent. It is a good thing Uncle Newt will be here to teach them about all the good things in life, like rock music, and biology, and all the good anime's. You may be a stick in the mud, but I will not let your poor child grow up and have the only cool person in their life be their mother. That is just, sad. That is sad.

Hermann's got his face on, his "no kaiju bits on my side of the lab" face, very stern and disaproving, but Vanessa's still laughing so Newt figures he's not going to get hit with Hermann's cane or anything. Just in case, though, he grabs the take out and heads into the kitchen, and totally doesn't grin when he see's Vanessa lean up to kiss Hermann's nose.

"I think you'll be a wonderful father," he hears her murmur. Newt snorts, but he does it quietly, and counts to ten before he calls out to them.

"Hey, guys, as much as I love crappy chinese food, I can't actually eat all of this by myself. You can stare lovingly at each other over Crab Rangoon, I promise."

~

Newton starts looking for his own place, because, well...because. Because there'll be a baby, and they'll need the spare room, and there's not enough space for Newt and a mini Gottlieb, so. Newt starts looking for his own place.

He feels sick to his stomach every time he thinks about it, about leaving this and being alone after so long. He had never thought there'd be anyone who'd be willing to let him stick around once they found out that sex was off the table, but this...whatever it is, with Hermann and Vanessa has been so great. He loves them both so much, but they...they love each other, and that's great, too. They're married, for god's sake, and Newton should have realized that kids would probably be a thing eventually. It's a wake up call. When Newt thinks family it's Hermann and Vanessa, it's the Doctors Gottlieb and that's it, that's all he's got, but they've been thinking each other, and eventually kids, with Newt as the college roommate, as the crazy uncle who babysits on date night. He's overstayed his welcome, and it's time to move on.

~

A few weeks later Newt and Hermann are sitting at the table, eating this stir fry thing that Hermann made and Newt complains about and pretends isn't edible. (It's not bad, but it always tastes a little...mathematical, when Hermann cooks. Like he's put exactly the right ratio of ingredients and stirred it exactly twelve times counter clockwise or whatever, but Newt doesn't think that's supposed to be the point. Vanessa is the best of the three of them, but she hates taking the time to make anything, and Newt's skills in the kitchen are limited to turning on the coffee machine and knowing just the right amount of time to set the microwave to for the left-overs in the fridge, so usually it's either Hermann or take out.) Vanessa's still at work, trying to get a few extra things done before her maternity leave, so it's just the pair of them tonight.

He's halfway through his third mouthful of vegetables when Hermann says, "We've been looking at a few new places."

Newton swallows, but it sits like a rock in his stomach. He's not really hungry anymore. "So've I."

Hermann frowns a little. "Oh. I didn't think...of course we can check into those as well, if you've something in mind."

Newt's eyebrows knit together. Under the table, his leg starts bouncing against his will. "There's an apartment a few blocks from here," he ventures slowly.

"We were thinking bigger, not downsizing." Newt's totally lost, now, and he really doesn't like the way Hermann is looking at him, like he's math, like he's a particularly troublesome equation.

"Right," Newt says, not really understanding where this conversation is even going.

Hermann pauses. Opens his mouth, closes it, swallows. "Newton," he says slowly, like one would talk to an exceptionally stupid four year old. "You do realize that you're meant to be coming with us, right? You understand that we are not leaving you behind." 

Newton feels a bit like an exceptionally stupid four year old. Mostly he feels relieved. "I didn't--oh."

"Yes, Newton, 'oh' indeed," says Hermann, but he's smirking a little bit. "It's not right for a child to grow up away from her godfather, after all."

He doesn't drop his fork, but it's a near thing. Newt's arguably one of the smartest people alive, but this has got him overwhelmed. "Oh," he repeats, staring down at his plate. Ridiculously, he thinks if he looks up, right now, if he looks at Hermann, there is a pretty decent chance he will start to cry. And that is definitely not the rockstar thing to do.

That's really the last either of them mentions it, but that's okay, too. Newt stops looking for apartments, anyway, and the nausea recedes as well. When Vanessa gets home she finds the pair of them next to each other on the couch, half way through some dumb made-for-T.V. movie. She toes off her shoes and curls up on Newt's other side, head on his shoulder, and it's...it's really nice.

"I love you guys," Newt says half an hour later, squished between them, his two favorite people in the world. Neither of them say anything, but Hermann's hand squeezes a little where it's resting on the back of Newton's neck, and Vanessa leans over and kisses him on the cheek. It feels like home.


End file.
